Supporting bolt and supporting system for raised access floor with the same

ABSTRACT

The present invention provides a supporting bolt, and a supporting system for a raised access floor with the same, having advantages of improved fluidity of an adhesive. The supporting bolt for a supporting system for a raised access floor includes a bolt body having a screw thread for combining with a nut on an exterior surface thereof, a central penetration hole in which an adhesive flows along a length direction of the bolt body, and an air hole communicating with the central penetration hole.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims priority to and the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2005-0066662 filed in the Korean Intellectual Property Office on Jul. 22, 2005, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

(a) Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a supporting system for a raised access floor. More particularly, the present invention relates to a supporting bolt that can improve fluidity of an adhesive and a supporting system for a raised access floor with the same.

(b) Description of the Related Art

Japanese Patent Publication No. 9-310465 discloses an example of a supporting system for a raised access floor that includes a supporting bolt that is hollow-shaped having a central penetration hole, a penetration hole that is perpendicularly inserted into the lower portion of the supporting bolt, a unit supporting plate including an anti-vibration unit that has a groove at the lower surface from the penetration hole to the exterior surface thereof, and a supporting bolt for the unit supporting part.

In the cited Japanese patent, an adhesive applied onto the supporting plate flows into a gap between a leveling nut and the supporting bolt so as to adhere the parts together, and the adhesive flows into the penetration hole and the groove of the anti-vibration unit so as to stick the anti-vibration unit onto a slab.

Consequently, the efficiency for applying the adhesive can be significantly improved, and so the construction ability using the adhesive can be improved.

However, in the cited Japanese patent, the adhesive flows through the central penetration hole by a natural flow, and so if the diameter of the central penetration hole is small or the adhesive has a high viscosity, the fluidity of the adhesive may be deteriorated so that the adhesive cannot flow through the central penetration hole. Consequently, the adhesive may not flow into the penetration hole of the anti-vibration unit, and so the anti-vibration unit may be unstably adhered to a slab.

In addition, in order to solve the drawback described above, the diameter and the length of the central penetration hole should be designed considering the characteristics of the adhesive such as viscosity, fluidity, and hardening time, and so the supporting bolt cannot be simply designed.

The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention has been made in an effort to provide a supporting bolt, and a supporting system for a raised access floor with the same, having advantages of improved fluidity of an adhesive.

An exemplary embodiment of the present invention provides a supporting bolt for a supporting system for a raised access floor, wherein the supporting system is installed between a slab and a floor panel so as to support the floor panel by using the supporting bolt and a nut for leveling, the supporting bolt including a bolt body having a screw thread for combining with the nut on an exterior surface thereof, a central penetration hole in which an adhesive flows along a length direction of the bolt body, and an air hole communicating with the central penetration hole.

According to the embodiment of the present invention, the fluidity of an adhesive can be improved by more than 50% compared to a supporting bolt without the air hole.

The air hole can be formed at the screw thread of the bolt body, and it can be formed to communicate with the central penetration hole perpendicularly or at an acute angle with the central penetration hole with respect to the floor panel.

Another exemplary embodiment of the present invention provides a supporting system including the supporting bolt described above, a supporting plate for supporting the floor panel, a nut that is located at the supporting plate and formed so as to combine with the screw thread of the supporting bolt, and an anti-vibration unit that is combined with a head portion of the supporting bolt and located on the slab.

In addition, an engagement groove for a screwing tool can be formed at an end portion of the supporting bolt.

The supporting plate of the supporting system may have a receiving portion for receiving an adhesive.

The anti-vibration unit can include: a body having a hemisphere-shaped lower surface that is located over the slab; a penetration hole that is located in the middle portion of the body so as to communicate with the central penetration hole of the supporting bolt; and a skirt unit that protrudes from the hemisphere-shaped lower surface and surrounds the penetration hole, the skirt unit supporting the body of the anti-vibration unit with a predetermined height so as to acquire a space for adhesion between the body and the slab.

According to the embodiment of the present invention, an adhesive can be concentrated into the space acquired by the skirt unit, and so the anti-vibration unit can be effectively adhered to the slab.

At this time, the diameter of the penetration hole can be larger than that of the central penetration hole of the supporting bolt.

In addition, the skirt unit can be formed to have a planar shape such as a circle, an ellipse, a quadrangle, a pentagon, a hexagon, or an octagon so as to form an adhesion space having a planar circle-like shape.

According to the embodiment of the present invention, the adhesion area of the body of the anti-vibration unit can be uniformly formed.

In addition, in order to improve resilience of the body of the anti-vibration unit, the body of the anti-vibration unit can include at least one hollow space portion in a horizontal direction, and the body of the anti-vibration unit and the skirt unit can be made of an anti-vibration rubber or an elastic rubber.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a supporting bolt according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of a supporting system for a raised access floor including the supporting bolt shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a supporting bolt according to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

Exemplary embodiments of the present invention will hereinafter be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a supporting bolt according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of FIG. 1. FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of a supporting system for a raised access floor including the supporting bolt shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2.

A supporting system for a raised access floor according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes a supporting plate 10 for supporting a floor panel 100 and a supporting bolt 30 that is located between the supporting plate 10 and an anti-vibration unit 20.

The supporting plate 10 is a component that stably supports the floor panel 100 for a raised access floor. A penetration hole is formed in the middle portion of the supporting plate 10 and a nut 12 is inserted into the penetration hole. An adhesive tape (not shown) for adhering to the floor panel 100 can be attached on the top surface of the supporting plate 10.

The supporting plate 10 can be made of a metal, a plastic, an inorganic material, a wood, or preferably a wooden board so as to be fixable to the floor panel 100 using a nail.

The supporting plate 10 of the supporting system has a receiving portion 14 for receiving an adhesive at the position where the nut 12 is inserted.

The supporting bolt 30 that is combined with the nut 12 so as to control the height of the supporting plate 10 has a body 34 provided with a screw thread 32 at an exterior surface thereof. A bolt head 36 is provided at an end portion of the body 34.

The bolt head 36 is combined with a head holding part 24 in a body 22 of the anti-vibration unit 20, and the bolt head 36 is combined to be able to be extracted from the anti-vibration unit 20 and to be rotated in the head holding part 24. The bolt head 36 can be designed to have a planar circular shape in order to disperse a load on the supporting bolt 30 to all parts of the anti-vibration unit 20.

In addition, an engagement groove 38 (e.g., a groove having a plus-shape or a minus-shape) for a screwing tool is formed at an end portion of the supporting bolt 30. Accordingly, the height of the supporting plate 10 can be controlled by screwing the supporting bolt 30 with a screwing tool such as a driver.

A central penetration hole 40 is formed in the bolt body 34 and the bolt head 36 of the supporting bolt 30 in a length direction of the bolt body 34. The central penetration hole 40 is used as a passage for running the adhesive applied to the receiving portion 14 into the anti-vibration unit 20.

The adhesive running through the central penetration hole 40 can flow in a natural way. Accordingly, when the diameter of the central penetration hole 40 is small or the adhesive has a high viscosity, the adhesive may not flow into the anti-vibration unit 20 through the central penetration hole 40 and may become hardened in the central penetration hole 40.

In order to prevent this, an exemplary embodiment of the present invention provides an air hole 42 communicated with the central penetration hole 40 for improving the fluidity of the adhesive.

The air hole 42 can be formed at the screw thread 32 of the bolt body 34, and there may be at least one air hole 42. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, air holes 42 can be formed at both an upper part and a lower part of the bolt body 34. A further additional air hole (not shown) can be formed at the middle portion of the bolt body 34.

As described above, the position and the number of air holes 42 can be varied as necessary.

The air hole 42 can be formed to communicate perpendicularly with the central penetration hole 40, or it can be formed to have an acute angle with the central penetration hole 40 as shown in FIG. 4. The acute angle means that an angle of the air hole 42 with respect to the floor panel 100 is less than 90 degrees.

Generally, an adhesive material that can be hardened within one hour to 24 hours, such as an epoxy-family, a vinyl-family, a water-soluble adhesive, and a newly developed adhesive, can be selectively used as the adhesive. According to an experiment result consistent with the exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the fluidity of an adhesive having a viscosity of 7,000-12,000 cps can be improved by more than 50% compared to a supporting bolt without the air hole 42.

As shown in FIG. 3, the anti-vibration unit 20 combined with the bolt head 36 includes a body 22 having a hemisphere-shaped lower surface so as to minimize the contacting area with the slab.

A plurality of head holding parts 24 that can combine with the bolt head 36 of the supporting bolt 30 are arranged with a predetermined spacing.

An opening portion that is formed by the arrangement of the head holding parts 24 is formed to have a size similar to the diameter of the supporting bolt 30. Consequently, after the bolt head 36 is inserted into the head holding part 24 by using the elasticity thereof, the bolt head 36 is not easily extracted owing to the narrow opening portion of the head holding parts 24.

As described above, the body 22 can have a hemisphere-shaped lower surface so that it can minimize the area transferring noise from the slab 110.

A penetration hole 26 is formed in the body 22 in a vertical direction from a top surface to a bottom surface. The penetration hole 26 is formed in a central position of the body 22 where the body 22 communicates with the central penetration hole 40 of the supporting bolt 30. The diameter of the penetration hole 26 is larger than that of the central penetration hole 40 of the supporting bolt 30.

A skirt unit 28 is formed to protrude from the lower surface of the body 22 and to surround the penetration hole 26. The skirt unit 28 forms a space for adhesion between the body 22 and the slab 110 by restricting diffusion of the adhesive flowed through the penetration hole 26.

For example, the skirt unit 28 can be formed to have a planar shape such as a circle, an ellipse, a quadrangle, a pentagon, a hexagon, or an octagon so as to form an adhesion space having a planar circle-like shape.

According to the structure described above, the adhesion area of the body 22 of the anti-vibration unit 20 can be uniformly formed.

In addition, in order to spread the adhesive that is flowed into the skirt unit 28 through the penetration hole 26, the skirt unit 28 is used to maintain the body 22 with a predetermined height from the slab 110.

The skirt unit 28 can have various sizes dependent upon the demanded size of adhesion area. In FIG. 3, the skirt unit 28 has the same size as the body 22, but this is not compulsory.

According to the anti-vibration unit 20 having the structure of the skirt unit 28 described above, an adhesive can be concentrated into the space acquired by the skirt unit 28, and so the anti-vibration unit 20 can be effectively adhered to an under layer such as the slab 110.

The anti-vibration unit 20 can be formed by a molding process using an elastic rubber having a property of anti-vibration and some additives such as a carbon and an iron oxide. Preferably, in order to absorb the impact power that is transferred to the under layer and to reduce transference of a vibration, the body 22 and the skirt unit 28 can be made of an anti-vibration rubber.

In addition, although not shown, in order to improve resilience of the body 22 of the anti-vibration unit 20, the body 22 of the anti-vibration unit 20 can include at least one hollow space portion in a horizontal direction

An exemplary embodiment using the supporting system for forming a raised access floor will hereinafter be described.

First, the bolt head 36 of the supporting bolt 30 is combined with the head holding part 24 of the anti-vibration unit 20, and the screw thread 32 of the supporting bolt 30 is combined with the nut 12 of the supporting plate 10.

A lower portion of the floor panel 100 is adhered onto a part of the supporting plate 10, and the floor panel 100 and the supporting system is arranged on the slab 110.

The floor panel 100 is leveled by screwing the supporting bolt 30 using a screwing tool, and an adhesive is applied into the receiving portion 14 of the supporting plate 10.

Then, the adhesive flows down through the central penetration hole 40 of the supporting bolt 30 and the penetration hole 26 of the anti-vibration unit 20, and the adhesive gathers in the space of the skirt unit 28.

During this process, the existence of the air hole 42 communicated with the central penetration hole 40 of the supporting bolt 30 helps to improve the fluidity of the adhesive passing through the central penetration hole 40.

The skirt unit 28 of the anti-vibration unit 20 can include an adhesive-exhausting portion 28 a as shown in the enlarged circular view of FIG. 3. The adhesive-exhausting portion 28 a can prevent the adhesive from filling the whole space for adhesion by exhausting an excessive portion of the adhesive flowed into the space for adhesion.

The size and number of the adhesive-exhausting portion 28 a can be varied dependent upon the kind of adhesive. It is preferable that the size and number of the adhesive-exhausting portion 28 a are designed to exhaust 5% to 40% of the quantity of remaining adhesive in the space for adhesion.

Such an anti-vibration unit 20 can be adopted when a kind of adhesive that is not suitable for reducing the transference of vibrations after hardening is used since it can reduce the transference of vibrations despite using such a kind of adhesive.

FIG. 3 shows an example where the adhesive-exhausting portion 28 a is formed at the bottom portion of the skirt unit 28, but the adhesive-exhausting portion 28 a can be formed at a middle portion of the skirt unit 28.

As described above, the supporting bolt according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention has the air hole, and so the fluidity of the adhesive can be improved.

Consequently, it can prevent poor adhesion of the anti-vibration unit using an adhesive.

According to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, when the diameter and the length of the central penetration hole is designed considering the characteristics of the adhesive such as viscosity, fluidity, and hardening time, the supporting bolt can be simply designed compared to the conventional art.

In addition, the adhesive that is flowed through the central penetration hole of the supporting bolt and the penetration hole of the anti-vibration unit can be concentrated into the space acquired by the skirt unit, and so the anti-vibration unit can be effectively adhered to the slab.

While this invention has been described in connection with what is presently considered to be practical exemplary embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments, but, on the contrary, is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. 

1. A supporting bolt for a supporting system for a raised access floor, wherein the supporting system is installed between a slab and a floor panel so as to support the floor panel by using the supporting bolt and a nut for leveling, the supporting bolt comprising: a bolt body having a screw thread for combining with the nut on an exterior surface thereof; a central penetration hole in which an adhesive flows along a length direction of the bolt body; and an air hole communicating with the central penetration hole.
 2. The supporting bolt for a supporting system for a raised access floor of claim 1, wherein the air hole is formed at the screw thread of the bolt body, and there is at least one air hole.
 3. The supporting bolt for a supporting system for a raised access floor of claim 2, wherein the air hole is formed to communicate perpendicularly with the central penetration hole.
 4. The supporting bolt for a supporting system for a raised access floor of claim 2, wherein the air hole forms an acute angle with the central penetration hole with respect to the floor panel.
 5. The supporting bolt for a supporting system for a raised access floor of claim 1, wherein an engagement groove for a screwing tool is formed at an end portion of the supporting bolt.
 6. A supporting system for a raised access floor, wherein the supporting system is installed between a slab and a floor panel so as to support the floor panel, comprising: a supporting bolt comprising a bolt body having a screw thread, a central penetration hole formed along a length direction of the bolt body wherein an adhesive flows, and an air hole communicating with the central penetration hole; a supporting plate for supporting the floor panel; a nut that is located at the supporting plate and is formed so as to combine with the screw thread of the supporting bolt; and an anti-vibration unit that is combined with a head portion of the supporting bolt and is located on the slab.
 7. The supporting system for a raised access floor of claim 6, wherein the anti-vibration unit comprises: a body having a hemisphere-shaped lower surface that is located over the slab; a penetration hole that is located in the middle portion of the body of the anti-vibration unit so as to communicate with the central penetration hole of the supporting bolt; and a skirt unit that protrudes from the hemisphere-shaped lower surface and surrounds the penetration hole, the skirt unit supporting the body of the anti-vibration unit with a predetermined height so as to acquire a space for adhesion between the body and the slab.
 8. The supporting system for a raised access floor of claim 7, wherein the diameter of the penetration hole is larger than that of the central penetration hole of the supporting bolt.
 9. The supporting system for a raised access floor of claim 7, wherein each of the body of the anti-vibration unit and the skirt unit is made of an anti-vibration rubber or an elastic rubber.
 10. The supporting system for a raised access floor of claim 7, wherein the skirt unit comprises an adhesive-exhausting portion.
 11. The supporting system for a raised access floor of claim 6, wherein the supporting plate has a receiving portion for receiving an adhesive. 